Psalm 52:4

All have gone aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one. (Psalm 52:4 DR)

At the end of the preceding passage we had been left with the resolution to one question and the way forward to the resolution of the second. The first concerned how God—Who is omniscient—could be said to look down from heaven so as to inquire into the deeds of men, as if such an inquiry was the means of acquisition of that information. This purported problem was resolved by noting how the Scriptures often speak of actions of God as if He were doing them, when in reality it is the action done by men in union with His will and through the gifts He gives.

Since all goodness and wisdom and virtue and such are found in God as the Source, those who are united to Christ in His mystical Body the Holy Catholic Church have a share in that union with God and thus participate in such things. St. Augustine uses St. Paul’s words in Philippians 3:20 about how our conversatio (conversation, way of conduct, etc.) is in the heavens, and how the Holy Ghost Who searches the depths of God does not do so as if He needs to do so as to know God, since the Holy Ghost is God. Rather, this searching of God’s depth is the Holy Ghost’s action in us to enable us to know God:

By the gift of the Spirit of sons, they to whom hath been given the Spirit of God look out upon the sons of men, that they may see if there is one understanding or seeking after God: but because that by the gift of God and by the Spirit of God they do it, this God is said to do; as it were to look forth and see. But wherefore From heaven, if this is done by men? Because saith the Apostle, But our conversation is in the heavens (Philippians 3:20). For whence doest thou this that thou mayest see, whence lookest forth that thou mayest perceive? Is it not in heart? If in heart thou doest this, Christian, see whether it is above thou hast thy heart. If above thou hast thy heart, from heaven upon earth thou art looking forth. And because this by the gift of God thou doest, God from heaven is looking forth upon the sons of men. The former question then, according to our measure, thus hath been solved. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 52, 5)

The second question left unresolved, however, flows from this passage, in which the Psalmist seems to provide a blanket summation of mankind’s wickedness. For after God looks down from heaven to see if there are any that do understand or do seek God, the conclusion arises that—as the Psalmist says—all have turned aside, they are become unprofitable together, there is none that doth good, no not one.

It has already been seen in verse two that the corruption of sin which darkens the intellect and wounds the soul and weakens that will makes men abominable in their iniquities—that is, in the actual commission of sin—and in this manner there is none that doth good. But this is now doubled down upon and expanded in this passage, for the corruption of the previous verse corresponds to the all have turned aside of this passage; the abominable in iniquities is paralleled with them having become unprofitable together, and there is none that doth good is now repeated and expanded to seemingly leave no wiggle room—there is none that doth good, no not one. In other words, the Psalmist seems to be not simply speaking on a general level about the normal condition of man, but in actuality about every conceivable instance of man; hence the inclusion of no not one.

This leads directly to the second problem in need of solution. The Psalm opens with the title of for Maeleth, which is for one in travail or in pain. Yet this travail is specifically in reference to the state of man, leading naturally to ask—if every man has turned aside, become unprofitable and has not done good, no not one, then who precisely is the one who travails at the wickedness of man? St. Augustine places a fine point on this seeming dilemma:

What is that which looking forth we acknowledge? What is that which looking forth God acknowledges? What (because here He gives it) does He acknowledge? Hear what it is; that All have gone aside, together useless they have become: there is not one that does good, there is not so much as one. What then is that other question, but the same whereof a little before I have made mention? If, There is not one that does good, is not so much as one, no one remains to groan amid evil men. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 52, 6.)

St. Bellarmine had initially referred to the previous passage and then ties it into this, noting that the corruption of man’s nature, although it renders him incapable of absolute and perfect good, doe not make his every objectively good act therefore sinful. But the state of Original Sin makes men incapable of attaining to perfect acts of righteousness, as the loss of Original Righteousness is a defect that cannot be remedied within his own powers:

He describes God looking down from heaven, as if he were a mortal from his lofty look out, to see “If there be any that understood;” that is, not corrupted in his mind; “Or seeking God;” that is, not corrupted in his will, who could understand and love, and thus seek God, who is the supreme good. What God knew, that is, made us know, he explains in those words: “They are all gone aside;” that is, he saw they had all become useless to God, inasmuch as they neither serve, worship, nor render him any tribute of praise; and, finally, that he saw none to do a work perfectly and absolutely good. (St. Robert Bellarmine, A Commentary on the Book of the Psalms, 13, 2-3)

The problem of this question now requires a solution, for either the Psalmist speaks in a manner that leads into the heresies that Calvinism will impose upon his words and thus will be without fidelity to truth, or there is manner in which there are men who—as the Maeleth for whom this Psalm is inscribed—travail among evil men.

St. Augustine introduces what will become the resolution of this issue:

Stay, says the Lord, do not hastily give judgment. I have given to men to do well; but of Me, He says, not of themselves: for of themselves evil they are: sons of men they are, when they do evil; when well, My sons. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 52, 6.)

The error of Calvinism’s deplorable doctrine of Total Depravity—as St. Bellarmine noted in an earlier passage—is that it renders all of humankind’s faculties to such a state that even objectively good acts are considered sinful. I earlier made the jest that this would extend to even the most mundane choices such as a condiment for a burger, and while that is indeed intended somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it does flow forth from the logic of the heresy. If the nature of man is totally depraved, then every movement of his being—including appetites, passions, intellect and will—are likewise totally depraved, although many will attempt to evade this logic by making total mean something other than total, such as the equivocation that one is totally depraved albeit not utterly depraved, as if there is a substantial difference between the two. In fact, within the logic of Total Depravity there could be no meaningful distinction. The usual attempt to explain this distinction is that to be totally depraved means that one is not capable of any good, but that one is not therefore utterly depraved in that one does not necessarily commit as many sins as one possibly could. The error in this equivocation is that Total Depravity cannot—as St. Thomas argued against the Stoics—admit of any gradation or gravity in sins. Therefore, to commit any sin is the same as committing every possible sin since there is no gradation or distinction in gravity.

Granted, such a philosophy grounded in the insipient Nominalism that infects all of Protestant thought destroys the classical notion of the faculties of man as being constitutive of his being, for if he is truly totally depraved, then that would entail the evacuation of his intellect, reason and will, which would make him cease to be human. But as humans who are sinners still exist and still are said to retain the imago Dei, such a theology is then forced to force-fit the equally deplorable concomitant doctrine of imputation of righteousness to account for the possibility of salvation even whilst man remains totally depraved.

St. Augustine, however, articulates the true doctrine found in the Psalmist’s words (which St. Paul will of course also affirm in the Scriptures) that the Psalmist is speaking of men without grace, still under the bondage of Original Sin, in which the Original Righteousness with which man was united to God in grace has been lost, and thus cannot by his own efforts or acts be restored. It was, after all, a gift in the first place which was graciously bestowed upon him in creation, and as it is a gift is not something he deserved or can therefore merit again. This loss of original righteousness introduces the sickness of sin into the human race, such that we are living is a state pf privation of that which we require for union with God, for the union of God with any of His creatures is entirely an act that is initiated by His lovingkindness and grace.

God created us—as St. Augustine says—to do well; as St. Paul says:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:10 DR)

St. Augustine—echoing St. Paul—notes that this means of doing well is of Me, not of themselves. Of ourselves we cannot do the perfect righteousness and good works that we have been created to do; it is only when we are in Christ Jesus that those works which we were prepared beforehand to walk in can be brought to actuality.

St. Augustine fittingly locates this in the adoption of believers as sons of God; that is, we are translated out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of light, recreated in Christ Jesus. This is not merely a forensic or legal change of status, but is an interior renovation in which we are actually made righteous by the righteousness of God poured into our hearts through His charity by the Holy Ghost, as St. Paul speaks of in Romans 5:5. God pours His charity out upon us that we might be able to love Him by means of the very love with which He loves us. This participation in the charity of God is real and manifested in the vivification of the heart and will to actually love God:

For this thing God does, out of sons of men He makes sons of God: because out of Son of God He has made Son of Man. See what this participation is: there has been promised to us a participation of Divinity: He lies that has promised, if He is not first made partaker of mortality. For the Son of God has been made partaker of mortality, in order that mortal man may be made partaker of divinity. He that has promised that His good is to be shared with you, first with you has shared your evil: He that to you has promised divinity, shows in you love. Therefore take away that men are sons of God, there remains that they are sons of men: There is none that does good, is not so much as one. (St. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 52, 6.)

For this participation to be truly a participation requires that man is not totally depraved, that his intellect can be enlightened in Baptism and his will reordered by the grace of the charity of God in his soul so as to actually love God. There is some degree of truth to the imputation of righteousness, as it is Scriptural language, but that imputation finds its grounding in the actual infusion of righteousness in the soul. Some imputation fantasies have it that man is declared righteous in view of the righteousness of Christ yet still at enmity with God in his heart because of total depravity—the neologism Jesus goggles is perhaps in jest but not inaccurate. However, the true Catholic doctrine is that this righteousness is imputed to him because he has been made righteous, as the Council of Trent dogmatically defines, commenting on the formal cause of justification:

…[L]astly, the alone formal cause is the justice of God, not that whereby He Himself is just, but that whereby He maketh us just, that, to wit, with which we being endowed by Him, are renewed in the spirit of our mind, and we are not only reputed, but are truly called, and are, just, receiving justice within us, each one according to his own measure, which the Holy Ghost distributes to every one as He wills, and according to each one’s proper disposition and co-operation. For, although no one can be just, but he to whom the merits of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are communicated, yet is this done in the said justification of the impious, when by the merit of that same most holy Passion, the charity of God is poured forth, by the Holy Spirit, in the hearts of those that are justified, and is inherent therein: whence, man, through Jesus Christ, in whom he is ingrafted, receives, in the said justification, together with the remission of sins, all these (gifts) infused at once, faith, hope, and charity. For faith, unless hope and charity be added thereto, neither unites man perfectly with Christ, nor makes him a living member of His body. For which reason it is most truly said, that Faith without works is dead and profitless; and, In Christ Jesus neither circumcision, availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by charity. (Council of Trent, Session 6, Chapter 7.2)

The Council of Trent thus fleshes out what St. Augustine is driving at in terms of participation in Divinity, in that the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity are infused into the soul in justification, thus actually making man righteous, and it is this translation from sin to righteousness as actualized in the soul which is the basis of the declaration of justification. These gifts are those lost in the fall, yet even more perfected in Christ as they are merited (the meritorious cause) by His offering of His life to the Father as a perfect sacrifice for sins. As we are grafted into Christ we participate in His mystical Body and thus share in the fruits of that redemption, and even in the sufferings of His Passion (cf. Colossians 1:24). The charity of God now enables man to do that which without grace he cannot, which is to truly love God, and thus there is not merely the snow-covered dunghills of men who are merely declared righteous but still are of those whom there is none that doth good, no not one. Rather, grace is transformative in that the charity of God poured into the soul allows us to actually increase in the theological virtues as we participate in the divine nature and share in our Lord’s sufferings:

Having, therefore, been thus justified, and made the friends and domestics of God, advancing from virtue to virtue, they are renewed, as the Apostle says, day by day; that is, by mortifying the members of their own flesh, and by presenting them as instruments of justice unto sanctification, they, through the observance of the commandments of God and of the Church, faith co-operating with good works, increase in that justice which they have received through the grace of Christ, and are still further justified, as it is written; He that is just, let him be justified still; and again, Be not afraid to be justified even to death; and also, Do you see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. And this increase of justification holy Church begs, when she prays, “Give unto us, O Lord, increase of faith, hope, and charity.” (Council of Trent, Session 6, Chapter 10)

For St. Augustine the resolution of the second question is thus brought about in that the partaking of our nature in the Incarnation by the Son of God becoming Son of Man is the locus in which the sons of men are actually made into sons of God. As we are brought into the Body of Christ through the sacrament of Baptism we are filled with the charity of God and justified in truth, this justification being a translation, from that state wherein man is born a child of the first Adam, to the state of grace, and of the adoption of the sons of God, through the second Adam, Jesus Christ, our Saviour (Council of Trent, Session 6, Chapter 4). Those who are thus translated and infused with the righteousness of God through the outpouring of His charity into the soul become the Maeleth—he who travails—to whom this Psalm is ascribed. As St. Augustine noted, our Lord shared in our evils by taking our sins upon Himself (while He Himself being sinless) so that we might, in turn, take upon ourselves that promised divinity, which is a participation and partaking in the charity and love of God that was demonstrated towards us.

Apart from this union with God in charity through His mystical Body the Church—and thus being united to Christ as sons of God—we stand outside of the sons of God still among the sons of men, wherein there is none that doth good, no not one.

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I used Trapcode Mir to create the mesh for this ad tried to make it look very jaggedy and spikey to hopefully communicate some of the essence of the passage. I created a depth map with a precomp containing some Fractal Noise which then generates the height of the peaks in the Mir plugin based on the luminance values. In the precomp I animated the random seed to have this sort of unsettled movement that has no smoothness and then defomed the mesh to have it spiral around itself.

Enjoy.

View a higher quality version of this gif here: